Comment by m463
25 days ago
> mining my viewing habits
apple tv isn't private, apple does mine your viewing habits, read their eula.
You should also know that all non-apple apps like netflix have unrestricted network access and can/will do the same.
It is too bad that people accept apple's marketing about privacy, because they have dark patterns, they collect telemetry, they don't let you block it, and they help apps do the same things.
A privacy policy is not the same as being able to firewall your device, but apple doesn't allow firewalls.
Just FYI on MacOS's default telemetry:
1) By default, every word (each character, actually) you input into Spotlight/Siri gets time-stamped and sent to `smoot.apple.com`
2) Even with a Pi-Hole blocking *.apple.com (i.e. using MacOS >> Networking >> DNS Server), on boot all modern Apple Silicon reaches out to security.apple.com (i.e. bypassing the user's manual-input DNS setting), using the DHCP-issued DNS IP [0]
pro-tip: use your router's DHCP to auto-issue your local Pi-Hole's IP address [as DNS] with your IP-leases; then you'll actually be able to block all *.apple.com traffic (using the PiHole which your DHCP issues to, by default)
[0] this is for security chip "lockout" detection (e.g.) and it is pervasive across NICs (i.e. it REALLY seeks any attempt for DNS resolution to security.apple.com)
> 1) By default, every word (each character, actually) you input into Spotlight/Siri gets time-stamped and sent to `smoot.apple.com`
Huh? How do you expect Apple to show live search results if they don't send what you're typing to their servers?
> 2) Even with a Pi-Hole blocking *.apple.com (i.e. using MacOS >> Networking >> DNS Server), on boot all modern Apple Silicon reaches out to security.apple.com (i.e. bypassing the user's manual-input DNS setting), using the DHCP-issued DNS IP [0]
From a quick google search, it seems to be if you enable "Find my" or pass word recovery with an Apple account. I think that's reasonable to expect if you enable these features.
>I think that's reasonable to expect if you enable these features.
This is the default behavior, without enabling anything (you cannot disable the T2 chip reaching out to security.apple.com), whether or not you have Find My™ enabled. You cannot disable this "feature."
If you take a brand new Apple computer and turn it on, literally the first DNS query it makes (before MacOS even begins to load) is to `security.apple.com` – with zero configuration – and you can never disable this behavior (it is embedded into Apple's T2 SoC).
Every boot thereafter, the Apple product attempts to re-query this host; if connected (and black-listed) the computer is immediately disabled.
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Similarly, Microsoft has OS-level phone-homing which contacts host `spynet2.microsoft.com`, which is certainly an interesting naming scheme (at least they're open about it). This also ignores the user-supplied DNS (in Settings >> Networking >> NIC >> DNS ).
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>>Huh? How do you expect Apple to show live search results if they don't send what you're typing to their servers?
I don't want spotlight to show any online results in the first place, is there anyone here who does?
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>...pro-tip...
Thank you for the detailed suggestion. I use LittleSnitch. pi-hole previously, I must take another look. Did you catch LG spying posts?
FYI:
LittleSnitch resolves DNS queries (i.e. it determines the IP address) before you have clicked ALLOW/DENY; so even if you DENY the host['s IP] connection, your DNS resolver has already seen the query.
Also, LittleSnitch does not block `security.apple.com` queries, which occur before this software has even loaded.
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>Did you catch LG spying posts?
After last month's GamersNexus exposé, I went back and watched Citizen Four [0]: Ed says it plain and simply in this 2014 documentary, "you don't even need to be a high value target, anything that can listen WILL."
>>"Saying [if you have nothing to hide, then...] is like saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say!" –Edward Snowden
[0] documentary about Snowden revelations; also see his book Permanent Record [1]
[1] <https://www.amazon.com/Permanent-Record-Edward-Snowden/dp/12...>
side note: I worked in data centers during the Snowden leaks, and the cover stories were always incredible ("the tech just doesn't exist to do that yet" is agency legalese, folks)...
This is ugly. Time for some more lawsuits probably.
The EULA (that you couldn't possibly read entirely) makes this all pretty "okay," in legalese.
I think it's time that we legislate EULAs, with terms similar to credit card offers (e.g: requiring that interest be listed clearly in large bold print on the front of all offers) that make them shorter and more understandable; obviously, data is "the new oil" so of course everything is opt-out (if at all possible), and you cannot trust settings (e.g: to survive an update).
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After last year's Guest/Wifi breach (wireless access spanning across virtually all VLANs on same hardware), I'm at the point where my subnets are mostly offline (entirely disconnected). Plex is now added to the list (after last month's cryptominer intrusions), entirely local (no physical connection to interwebs, entirely separate access point for local streaming).
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I'm comfortable with the idea that Netflix can collect data about what I watch on Netflix, and that Apple can track what I buy in the Apple app.
I'm not comfortable with my TV or streaming stick manufacturer collecting and mining data about everything that appears on the screen.
I haven't checked in a while, but the netflix app might contact third party domains.
I think other streaming apps definitely do.
Apple does too. I don't know about the TV, but a vanilla safari has a bunch of default favorites, and when you open a browser window it contacts each one of them and sets cookies. It also contacts google by default for searching, character by character quick search completion and on and on.
Wouldn't it be nice to be able to buy products without all this nonsense?
> It also contacts google by default for searching, character by character quick search completion
Similarly to the parent comment, I am quite comfortable with Safari sending my search query to Google when I perform a Google search.
I’m not sure how that’s nonsense.
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> vanilla safari has a bunch of default favorites, and when you open a browser window it contacts each one of them and sets cookies
Last I checked it was grabbing the favicons; intentionally bad or not, this is still obnoxious anti-privacy behavior that needs to stop.
Your viewing habits are not mined by Apple TV the same way that a smart TV does it.
If you use the Apple TV app and if you give permission to the app in the modal to link your HBO Max/Paramount+/etc. app, then that app can call a special API to donate your viewing history to the Apple TV app. You can just decline the prompt, or you can just not use the Apple TV app, and then the other streaming services have no recipient to give this data to.
Conversely, your TV runs something called ACR or Automatic Content Recognition where a screenshot of your TV input/app is taken every ~x seconds. At best, it distills it into a local signature and ships that off to some amount of servers. At worst (e.g.: laptop HDMI) it can send it for processing. Some TVs take screenshots much more often if you use a device connected by HDMI.[1]
The former is generally used for content recommendation, but we can also assume that it could potentially get pooled into stuff like App Store ads. The latter is also used to discern your political affiliation and target you for political campaign ads, among every other type of ad.
1: https://www.rtings.com/tv/learn/research/smart-tv-data-priva...
Privacy advocates recommend Apple TV for a reason.
> Breaking down why Apple TVs are privacy advocates’ go-to streaming device
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/06/all-the-ways-apple-t...
It looks like the only thing Apple isn't doing is ACR. They still say that they track what you watch and sell that to 3rd parties though. Now that Apple is in the targeted ad business and even filling iOS with ads I suspect it's all downhill from here.
Filling iOS with ads?
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Apple (mostly) isn’t in the business of selling ads. I’d certainly trust this over most other options.
Actually, they sell lots of ads in the app store. I will not be surprised if they sell video ads, display ads or search ads in the future. They could earn tens of billions in revenue per year; the main business question is how that trades off against the various downsides of advertising sales.
Apple generated $416 billion in total net sales in 2025. Of that total, $307 billion (about 74% of total revenue) came directly from their hardware ecosystem. The services segment generated the remaining $109 billion (26%); including their advertising platforms, AppleCare, cloud services, and Apple TV...
Seems like their advertising might not be a focus...
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The News app is also spammed full of shitty-looking ads.
> Apple (mostly) isn’t in the business of selling ads. I’d certainly trust this over most other options.
Do you not use the same Apple App Store, Apple Maps, and Apple Podcast apps I use? The ads are becoming a real problem.
Watch out - I think apple revenue for services is increasing, now almost 30% and gross margins on services is ~75%
I think ads are projected to be $9b this year
Their services revenue has been skyrocketing. Ads are the reason.
I would say Apple is on the Pareto frontier for a given level of config/setup effort though.
There absolutely are much more private options (I run one) but it’s more effort.